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CHINA.
China proper, extending over 73,093 geographical, or 1,534,953 English square miles, is divided into eighteen provinces, the area and population of which are given as follows in the most recent estimates, partly based on official returns :-
Province.
Provincial Capital.
Are English square | Population.
miles.
Gan-hwuy
Kiang-si,
Foo-Keen
Che-Keang
Hoo-Pih..
Chih-li...
Shan-tung.
Shan-se..
Honan.
Keang-soo.
Pekin.... Tae-nan-foo
Tae-yuen-foo.. Kae-fung-foo... Nankin.... Gan-king-foo...
58,949 82,114,023 65,104 28,958,764 55,268 27,260,281 65,104 23,037,171 37,843,501 92,661 34,168,059
Nan-chang-foo...
72,176
30,426,999
Fuh-choo-foo...
53,480
38,888,433
Hang-choo-foo.....
39,150
26,256,784
Woo-chang-foo...
37,370,098
381,724
Hu-nan.
Chang-cha-foo...
18,652,507
Shen-se..
Se-gan-foo...
10,207,256
154,008
Kan-suh.
Lan-choo-foo.......
15,193,135
Sze-Chuen..
Ching-too-foo
166,800
21,435,678
Kwang-tung, or Canton....
Kwang-chow-foo..
79,456
19,147,030
Kwang-si
Kwe-lin-foo.....
78,250
7,313,895
Yun-Nan..
Kwei-Choo..
Yun-nan-foo....
107,869
5,561,320
Kwei-yang-foo..
64,554
5,288,219
Total..
1,534,953 405,213,152
The above population, giving 263 souls per square mile throughout China proper appears to be excessive, considering that some of the outlying portions of the immense territory are by no means densely inhabited. Nevertheless, other returns than those of the above tables said to be official, give still higher figures. It is stated that in a census taken in 1842, the population of China was ascertained to number 414,686,994, or 320 per English square mile, and that a 1852 it had risen to 450,000,000, or 347 inhabitants per square mile. But there is, probably, less accuracy in the given results of the latter enumerations than in the preceding estimate as the power and authority of the government have been on the decline for more than half a century, and disturbed by constant insurrections, mostly spreading over large portions of the empire.
The standing military force of China consists of two great divisions, the first formed by the more immediate subjects of the ruling dynasty, the Tartars, and the second by the Chinese and other subject races. The first, the main force upon which the imperial government can rely form the so-called troops of the Eight Banners, and garrison all the great cities, but so as to be separated by walls and forts from the population. According to the latest reports, the Imperial army comprises a total of 850,000 men, including 678 companies of Tartar troops, 211 companies of Mongols, and native Chinese infantry, a kind of militia, numbering 120,000 men. The native soldiers do not live in barracks, but in their own Louses, mostly pursuing some civil occupation.
The commercial intercourse of China is mainly with the United Kingdom and the British colonies. To the aggregate imports and exports of China, in the two years 1870 and 1871, Great Britain contributed 49 per cent., the colony of Hongkong 26 per cent., and India 10 per cent., leaving only 15 per cent. for all other foreign nations, chief among which stand the United States.
Great Britain has, in virtue of various treaties with the Chinese government- the first and most important signed August 29th, 1842—the right of access to twenty- one ports of the Empire, in addition to the colony of Hongkong, geographically a part of China. The twenty-one ports, known as Treaty ports, are divided into eleven
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